With a new school year, there is new leadership in the Student Finance Committee (SFC) as they continue to find participants to fill the empty seats on the committee, said new Treasurer of ASNMU and SFC chairperson Norah Johnson, junior political science and environmental studies major. She added that she began her training last semester under the former treasurer, so the transition to the new semester was easy, but there are now only four members on a board that should consist of nine.

“We are currently accepting applications and conducting interviews. We are looking for suitable people to fill these roles. The time commitment is minimal but the responsibility of these roles is high and it is crucial to find students who exemplify the values of SFC,” Johnson said.

Each semester, students tuition includes an activity fee, which fluctuates each year depending on the needs of students and organizations. This semester, the fee was $35.72 per student. The funds are first distributed to designated allocation groups including ASNMU, WUPX and The North Wind. The remaining funds are allocated to the SFC; a branch of ASNMU, Johnson said.

“SFC allocates funding for various events and ideas around campus but we have a rather stringent process to ensure that student’s money is going to where it best serves the NMU community,” Johnson said. “We allocate funding for programs that enrich either the educational, social or cultural experience for students through a budgetary review process of our board.”

The demographic of organizations that SFC looks into are known as Earmarked Fund Groups (EFGs) who use SFC’s backing to hold the largest events on campus, Johnson said. Groups in this category are NoMAD, Northern Arts and Entertainment, Special Events Committee, Platform Personalities, Campus Cinema and Student Art Gallery. Examples of SFC sponsored events last year were Sustainability Week, the drag show, and Condomonium.

“We are hoping to start rebuilding the board this year but mostly our organizational goals are centered around how we can help other groups on campus enrich student life. We have already started receiving budget inquiries for new and recurring events and are excited about future programming,” Johnson said.

The SCF application can be found on ASNMU’s website.